Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel

Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel won the Nobel Peace Prize today for their work in raising international awareness to global warming and calling for strong action "before climate change moves beyond man's control".

This is a fantastic step in the right direction for all of us, increasing the validity of the cause tremendously. Hopefully it will raise pressure for all nations to step up efforts and implement mandatory measures to reduce their carbon footprint.

Click: Reuters Article

Ashton Hayes

Their aim: The Cheshire village of Ashton Hayes (pop. 1000 approx.) is aiming to become the first small community in England to achieve carbon neutral status. We want our children and future generations to know that we tried to do our bit to stem global warming and encourage other communities to follow suit. - from: GoingCarbonNeutral.com - Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral Project

This is a 16 minute video on their journey so far. I know it is a bit long for an internet vid, it's worth the watch though.

Gorilla Warfare

A little history and more elaboration on the post below:

“According to local human-rights workers and renowned paleontologist Richard Leakey, among others, a corrupt mafia of charcoal merchants has recently begun harvesting Virunga’s forests to fuel a $30 million-a-year industry. “These are their oil wells,” Leakey says of Virunga’s trees. If unchecked, the loggers’ activities could decimate the gorilla habitat in a few years….” click: Newsweek article


Click and scroll down just a bit to July 14th for an explanation on charcoal burning: Charcoal Burning


National Geographic video: Gorillas Executed in Congo Park


WildlifeDirect: Congo Rangers fight to ensure the survival of the last remaining Mountain Gorillas in Virunga National Park, this is their blog. The country is in the midst of a civil war, the park is one of its hostages at the moment. This blog is updated at least daily, please follow this link: Gorilla Protection



This is a heart wrenching story that really needs attention.

Congo rebels seize gorillas habitat

KINSHASA, Congo - Rebels have seized an area in eastern Congo that serves as a wildlife habitat for endangered mountain gorillas, threatening one of the last known populations of the animals, conservationists said Sunday.

Shelling and heavy gunfire could be heard from the headquarters of the Virunga National Park ... Only 700 mountain gorillas exist in the world, of which more than half live in the Virunga conservation area, a huge swath of territory at the intersection of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

Click here for the entire story: Congo rebels seize gorillas habitat

Melting ice pack displaces Alaska walrus

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska's northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice.

..."It looks to me like animals are shifting their distribution to find prey," said Tim Ragen, executive director of the federal Marine Mammal Commission...

..."The primary problem of maintaining ice habitat, that's something way, way, way beyond us," he said. "To reverse things will require an effort on virtually everyone's part."

Click here to read the entire article: Melting ice pack displaces Alaska walrus

Skeptics

I have been trying to get a happy post out of me, so not feeling it though. Not that I am miserable today, just a little bloggers block. Here's a link to a Grist article: How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic. It is a well done comprehensive list of talking points and scientific information.

Are we crazy?

I just resigned from the environmental committee of my neighborhood. My committee members are fantastic people, it's the Governing Board members we go against that are incomprehensibly stupid. Yes, that dumb, no exaggeration. Why is it so hard to get people to see beyond their own arse?? These people did not want a thing actually done, they just want it to look like they want something done. It seems it is politically incorrect to be indifferent to choking the life out of the habitat you promised to preserve and protect, but also politically incorrect to care too much about said habitat. So they fake it. They fake caring and nod knowingly in a what can you do fashion.

I am extremely irritated, frustrated and saddened. What I am no longer is naive enough to be a part of a completely contrived show to the public while a constant undermining of actual efforts for environmental improvement is taking place! They want their name in the paper for being forward thinking trailblazers for the environment, and they get it, all while they are actually squashing efforts. You know, your wheels are spinning, you're trying to get traction, then you see the very people you are working for holding the grease can. I am rambling a bit, just typing a stream of consciousness while disturbed and so saddened I can not stand it. We try to help, because we really do care, walking cliches and all. Why is it if you truly want to right environmental wrongs, your IQ drops in the minds of others?

I needed to vent... I'll do a happy post tomorrow to make it up.

Friends of the Earth Contest

This is my favorite Friends of the Earth contest entry so far. It's clever and quite cute.

History Repeats Itself?

When tobacco companies first set to work marketing and selling their wares, they were not aware that they were selling a potentially dangerous product. A few decades later, the medical community was facing mounting evidence of cigarettes true harm. A decade later the general public was becoming widely aware of the issue. It was around this time that the tobacco companies first launched the denial campaigns that lasted decades. Their marketing strategies were excellent, they appealed to our egos and to a *more sophisticated* mentality. Doctors touting death by cigarettes were made out as quacks and alarmists. A short time after this, the first government report came out about the health hazards of cigarettes. At no time did the tobacco companies waver in pushing forward in their ad campaigns for more customers, more money. Millions died throughout the 50 year reign of big tobacco.

Now, in the preceding paragraph, please replace these words: tobacco companies and big tobacco with oil companies and big oil; medical community and doctors with scientific community and scientists; cigarettes with global warming. I do not want this to be our story. The video below is a television spot that was aired in May of 2006. I know it's been around for a bit, but it's worth viewing again. The idiocy of this spot astounds me. The Competitive Enterprise Institute produced this video. They receive large portions of funding from big oil companies, and, coincidently, big tobacco as well. Do we really want to play "whoever has the most money wins", again?

Above is an actual commercial from the 1950s, just around the time the tobacco companies were labeling the mounting medical evidence against them as unfounded and alarmist. There were many more advertisements just like this one, both in print and on television. If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

Beach Closed

My local beach is closed due to elevated levels of bacteria from fecal matter. Ugh. That's all I can say. And maybe ewww. And please pick up after your pets. I wonder how they let the marine life know to stay away. Ok, I had a little more to say, but to reiterate, ugh.

All Things Considered - Midway atoll

I listened to a piece today on All Things Considered (NPR) about the Midway atoll. This is it in article form: Remote Waters Offer No Refuge from Plastic Trash , it was an interesting bit.

According to the U. S. government, an astonishing 50 tons of plastic arrive in Midways waters every year. If you can visualize this, the atoll is over 1,000 miles from the nearest city, has no infrastructure, and only a few dozen people living there. It is also a National Wildlife Refuge. And 50 tons of plastic is directed its way each year. Most of this plastic, approximately four-fifths, comes from the lands all around the Pacific Ocean. This is our trash from our streets, washed into our storm drains, washed into our watersheds and out into the ocean. And that's just the waste we can physically see, imagine if we could see the pesticides, fertilizers, pet waste and all of the other toxins that get washed into our watershed as well. The rest of the waste comes from cargo containers spilling out in stormy seas and from synthetic floats and other gear that is jettisoned illegally to avoid the cost of proper disposal in port. Midways' most copious resident, the Laysan albatross, pays a high price for this human ignorance. Of the 500,000 albatross chicks born there each year, approximately 40% die, mostly from dehydration or starvation. A two-year study funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that chicks that died from those causes had twice as much plastic in their stomachs as those that died for other reasons. The picture above is the stomach contents of ONE dead Laysan albatross chick. Anyone who says we can't make a difference in the pollution problems of this world should think again. We DO make a difference, evidenced by 50 tons of trash rushing toward a small atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Let's make it a positive difference instead, though.

Superfund365

What is Superfund? The EPA states that: "The Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country." As of September 2007 there are 1,315 final and proposed sites on the National Priorities List (NPL), but thousands more wait for approval. Here is the wiki on Superfund for further explanation: Wikipedia - Superfund

What is Superfund365? Superfund365 is an online data visualization application with an accompanying RSS-feed and email alert system. Each day for a year, starting on September 1, 2007, Superfund365 will visit one toxic site currently active in the Superfund program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). - description from Superfund365 website.

One of the goals for Superfund365 is to raise awareness of the expiration of this: Polluter Pays Fees. With the expiration of this fee, innocent Americans are picking up the bill instead of the polluters who need to be held accountable. Go here: Safe From Toxics and find out how to contact your U. S. Representative to encourage them to support H.R. 3584, a bill that would restore polluter funding for toxic waste cleanups by reinstating Superfund’s polluter fees.